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“Big day?”
“For your wedding!” He was losing his patience and the longer Caleb stood there staring at him, the madder he got.
He turned and ran out of the barn instead of waiting for Caleb’s answer and headed down the sidewalk, not stopping until he’d reached the saloon. Vern looked his way when he entered and narrowed his eyes. “Don’t be coming in here causing no trouble, Aaron or I'll have Marshal Avery toss you out.”
Aaron ignored him and said, “Where’s Betsey?”
“Home, I’d imagine.” He tossed the towel in his hand on the bar. “She only comes in at weeks end and works all three nights. During the week, she stays home, or I assume she does. She doesn’t like leaving the baby with Miranda more than she has to.”
At the mention of the baby, his blood ran like liquid fire through his veins. He turned without a word and headed back to the livery stable. Caleb was pulling the doors shut, getting ready to lock up for the day. His jaw was clenched and aching when he reached the corral and led his horse to the fence to get him saddled. He was tightening everything down when Caleb came back outside. One look at him and he wanted to kill him so he didn’t look at him again until he was in the saddle and headed out the gate. The moment he saw him, flashes of Caleb andBetsey together filled his head. He was racing through town without a backward glance moments later.
The ride out to Ben and Betsey’s place took no time. Probably due to the fact he’d run his poor horse near ragged getting there but he was too damn mad to be sorry about it. The moment he saw the lights shining through Ben and Betsey’s cabin windows, the anger was near consuming.
He jumped from the horse in front of the house and was banging on the door before he had time enough to ask himself why. It took three hard hits to the door with his fist for Betsey to jerk the door open and the look on her face was murderous.
“Aaron Hilam, have you lost your mind!”
“I wish I had.” He didn’t even wait for an invitation to come inside, just barged in as if he had a right to. The cabin was warm and homey, the scent of fresh bread in the air. He didn’t see Ben and with the ruckus he’d just caused banging on the door, assumed he wasn’t there or he would have answered instead of Betsey.
The front door slammed shut and he turned, his temper still raging as Betsey set anger filled eyes on him “What is wrong with you?”
Biting his tongue, he counted to ten before saying, “Where’s your baby?”
Her face went stark white. He didn’t even have to ask if it was true. That look on her face said it was. She walked into the small kitchen at the rear of the cabin without a word. He turned and watched her look in the oven. He saw that bread he smelled in there cooking. When she stood to her full height, her shoulders fell.
“My life is none of your business, Aaron. You gave up the right to have a say in what I do the moment you left.”
As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. Didn’t mean he had to like it any. “Why Caleb? I wasn’t even aware you two spoke.”
“Caleb?”
She turned to face him and those images he’d had earlier of Betsey and Caleb together caused the anger to burn red hot again. “He told me he asked you to marry him because of the baby so again, why Caleb? Did you go to him to get back at me?”
Get back at him?What in the world was he talking about?
Betsey had seen Aaron mad enough to bite nails in two but this—rage— filling his eyes now was something she’d never seen before. But what exactly was he mad about? She took the bread from the oven and set it atop the stove, keeping him to her back.
The first heavy thumps he’d banged on the door had nearly scared the daylights out of her and when he didn’t stop, she’d gotten mad enough to knock whoever was banging so hard silly. One look at Aaron’s face changed her mind, though. He looked murderous. And his question about Samuel—and Caleb asking her to marry him—made her wonder if he thought Caleb was Samuel’s father.
Facing him, she wiped her hands on the flour sack apron tied around her waist. “My relationship with Caleb is none of your business.”
He snorted a laugh. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“I beg to differ. After what we’ve shared, you being with Caleb is every bit my business.”
It was her turn to snort then. She straightened her spine. “Well, since my business is apparently yours, then the reverse is true, so who is the Indian girl you came rolling into town with? Hmmm?”
“Her name is Morning Dove. I met her in Silver Falls. Sheneeded help getting out of town. I helped her. Now it’s your turn. Why Caleb?”
Why Caleb what? she wondered. Why did Caleb ask her to marry him? Or did he think, by that reason alone, that she’d gone to Caleb and he’d fathered Samuel as a result? She turned her back to him again, heading to the sink and looking out the window. She didn’t see Ben and hoped he stayed out there long enough for Aaron to leave.
“Betsey…”
She sighed. “He was there for me when I needed someone to be.” True and vague enough the answer could mean a number of things. The longer he thought Samuel was Caleb’s the better off she’d be. “You hurt me, Aaron, more than I’ve ever been hurt in my life and—“
“—So you ran straight to Caleb?”
